Page 16 - important chinese art mar 22 2018

PROPERTY FROM

THE COOK FAMILY
COLLECTION

LOTS 504!518 & 590

Sidney Cook was born in Reading, England in 1910, the
youngest of six children. The family came from the village of
Aldbourne, Wiltshire. His father had moved " rst to Bath and
then in 1899 to Reading, where he established a construction
business improving stations on the London to Bristol railway
line and building houses in the town. Sidney’s mother was
Sidney T. Cook, 1946.
born in the Wiltshire village of Ramsbury and was a hard Гᅃ̵sࢫдd ϋ
driving woman, who made sure that her children all obtained
professional quali" cations.
so successful that by the time of Sidney’s death eighteen years
Sidney attended the local Church of England primary school,
later, it was the second largest window manufacturer in Britain.
walking to school every day from the family’s modest semi-
detached house next to his father’s builder’s yard in the Reading The Cooks became friends with their new neighbors, Bill
suburb of Earley. His walk took him past the large Manor House and Winifred Dormer. Bill was a historian, a writer for the
and the young boy promised himself that one day he would own local newspaper and an antiquarian. His wife was a judge of
that house. After secondary education at Reading School, Sidney Dalmatian dogs. The friendship led Sidney and Mollie to realize
joined his father’s building " rm, the only one of the six siblings to that their new house would be perfect to display antiques.
do so. He earned a civil engineering quali" cation at night, while So started the couple’s collecting, which gradually became a
working during the day. central passion in their lives.
At his older brother’s 21st birthday party, Sidney met The Manor House, Earley, dated to the 1500s. Sidney and
Mollie Hayter, the oldest of three sisters, whose father and Mollie restored it to how it would have looked in the 18th
grandfather were both house decorators in Reading. A century and they collected antiques from this period. Starting
pretty blonde, Mollie was the only one of the sisters who her in 1946 they bought English walnut furniture and silver, Dutch
family could a& ord to educate at private schools. They dated and Flemish old master paintings and Chinese Qing dynasty
for seven years while saving money and married in 1937, porcelain. They increased their knowledge by reading and
moving into a house not far from where Sidney had grown up. by family weekend drives to antique shops in the country,
Later that year Sidney’s father died, and at the age of 26 he eventually making most of their purchases from dealers in the
inherited the family building business which now had some 75 London area.
employees.
They bought their Chinese porcelain from Peter Vaughan of
It was not long before war broke out and by 1940 the country John Sparks Ltd., 128 Mount Street, London W1. The Cooks
was being pounded by German bombs in the Battle of Britain. would drive to London, look at porcelain, have lunch at the
British Spit" re and Hurricane " ghters, aided by the invention of nearby Connaught Hotel and perhaps do some shopping.
radar, took o& and intercepted approaching German bombers, Initially their purchases were quite modest, but over the years
but while they were in combat, their bases were being they were able to a& ord more important pieces, culminating
bombed, and they had nowhere to land. It was essential that in Sidney’s " nal purchase, a pair of Canton enamel " gures of
the damaged runways be repaired immediately, and Sidney’s boys, which was bought three months before his death at the
company won contracts for this work in southeast England. age of 53 in 1964.
The entrepreneurial young man also bought a farm which
Sidney and Mollie’s approach to collecting was to buy chie! y
milked Ayrshire cows and dealt in commercial real estate. from one reputable dealer in a particular " eld, in whom they
Meanwhile, Mollie’s youngest sister was a single mother
would place complete trust. A guiding principal was the
working in the Royal Army Pay Corps while her husband was
importance of quality. Sidney’s houses were advertised as
overseas " ghting as an o* cer in the Royal Berkshire Regiment
“Craftsman Built” and he wanted the porcelain that he bought
and Mollie helped look after their young son. Mollie also gave to meet the same high standards.
a home to highly traumatized children from the East End of
London who had been evacuated to escape the bombing, After Sidney’s death, Mollie continued to live in The Manor
receiving a commendation from the Queen after the war for House and in 1973 she married Julian Marsh, a retired solicitor
her work. whom she and Sidney had known for many years. In due
course they moved to a smaller house that they built on the
In 1946 Sidney and Mollie were expecting a baby which turned
grounds. Mollie died at the age of 101, still living at home.
out, unexpectedly, to be twin boys. They needed a larger
house. Sidney was able to negotiate a house swap with the The porcelain collection passed to the older of the Cooks’
owners of The Manor House, so realizing his boyhood dream, twin sons, Peter, who married an American and moved to the
he set about restoring it. The house needed a new larder horse country of Virginia, U.S.A. The pieces being sold now
window, and none could be bought, so Sidney worked with a have all been owned by the Cook family for over 50 years
local welder to design a steel casement window. He set up a and have been in Virginia since the 1980s, where they have
company producing windows for his house building " rm, and been displayed and cared for in a house that dates to 1765.
before long he was receiving orders for windows from other The family hopes that they will continue to be admired and
builders. The company, Ideal Casements (Reading) Ltd., was cherished as they have been for so many years by the Cooks.
14 SOTHEBY’S